Important Changes to Checking Domain Availability

We have heard from many creatives that they would like to check their submitted domains in “bulk” instead of checking them individually.

We have also recently seen several instances where the domain checker did not provide accurate availability results. Some of these issues are due to a surge in number of contests and excessive availability checks (consistent with our platform growth). Since many registries have limits on how many checks can be done per hour, we sometimes end up exceeding these limits and do not get accurate results.

Today, we are happy to announce major changes in our Domain Availability checks which should save lot of time for our creatives, while providing more accurate results.

  1. You can now check all your submitted names from any contest page by clicking a single button “Check Domain Availability”. You only have to click this button once, and it will check all your submitted names for the contest at the same time.
  2. Once you perform a check on your names, we will display the availability results next to the name, and you will be able to see them at any time.
  3. On “My Entries” page, you will be able to check all your entries in bulk by clicking on Check Domain Availability button. As you scroll down your list of entries. the system will automatically check the domain availability for all the entries, and will show you if any of those entries are no longer available. This way, you can report any registered domains much easily and without having to recheck every name individually.
  4. Since many creatives have thousands of entries, we will monitor this change for few days - and if it exceeds our API limits, we might have to make further modifications.
  5. You will be able to perform another check for the same set of names after 12 hours (of last check). The 12 hour limit is to ensure that we do not end up doing excessive number of availability checks, since you can now check for names in bulk.
  6. We believe the above changes will allow you to check the domain availability for your entries much more easily and therefore allow you to proactively report any domains that have been registered. As a result, we will now tighten the “Report Domain” window to 30 days of submitting your entry. We have found that in almost every case when we have made a follow up with the CH after 30 days of entry submission they have told us that the entry was not registered by them. Therefore, we would like to focus our resources and efforts on making it easier to check domain availability, so that we can proactively follow up on any reported domain registrations within 30 days of entry submission.
  7. We have now setup a direct link with GoDaddy so that the contest holders and creatives can directly purchase names by clicking “Purchase Domain” next to the entry. If a CH uses that link, we will remind them first about our compensation policy in case they use a creative’s submission. This way, the CHs will be much more informed about our policy (in case they missed it earlier). This will also allow us to better track any names that are being registered by the CH so that we can follow up with them in case they do not send a bonus or pick that entry as winner.

We will continue to add more features to improve our platform and as always, we appreciate all of your feedback.

Happy Holidays!

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I hate the 30 day limit especially if a contest isn’t even closed and winner chosen yet. We should have the ability to report those before a winner is chosen or a bot picks it. Yes, it’s more convenient but after seeing the amount of names registered I am very discouraged. If there’s a match between the CH and the name registered there should be compensation no matter how much time has gone by. :disappointed:. Also, what’s stopping the CH from just waiting the 30 days as I’m sure their aware of this as I have had many registered lately right after 60 days when we could no longer report them.

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I want to thank you so very much for doing this, @Dan and the team. This is going to make it so much better moving forward.

I also strongly agree with @Tammy, especially on contests that are still undecided. I found at least one of those.

I do have to say as well that I am totally heartbroken by the number of my names that I found were registered. Many were pretty unique to the contests I entered them in and I never got compensated for them and can’t report them now. But, this new change is going to help prevent some of that, or at least I think it definitely has the potential to do that. I am pretty surprised on some of them.

On the plus side: I found out I am a much better namer than I knew before today. It gives me a bit of a boost to know that. No matter who registered my names, they were good enough to be registered so that is a small glimmer.

Again, thank you VERY MUCH to SH for really listening to us on this front.

PS: I would love to be able to sort the list by “last 30 days” so I can get my reports in before it is too late.

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I would like to clarify, there is no change in the Compensation policy. If a CH registers a name from a contest, they are required to compensate the creative, or they would be violating our Terms of Service.

By waiting 30 days or 60 days, it does not allow the CH to “work around” this policy. If they register the name from the contest, they are bound by our Terms of Service to compensate the creative.

Please note that the follow ups we make with the CH are courtesy followups - if they deny that they registered the name, we do not pursue the issue further unless their is clear evidence or link between the CH and the registration. If you believe a name has been registered by the CH, and would like our team to check the who is information, you can still do that even after 30 days (or 60 days). Simply send a message to our support team with the entry, contest and the “who is” information or any other information that you might find beneficial. If the information matches, we will still follow up with the CH, regardless of how long has it been since the contest closed.

We have made far more investment in features and processes for checking and reporting domain registrations in comparison to other platforms because we strongly believe creatives should receive compensation if their names are used by any CH. However, as shared previously, since domains can be registered by anyone, the likelihood of the registration being completely unrelated goes up significantly, as more time passes.

The only way to guarantee that the names will not be registered by anyone is to register them before submitting to a contest. We strongly recommend taking advantage of that new feature, especially if you believe the name is a strong name, and you would like to continue submitting it in multiple contests.

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Thank you Dan! I didn’t realize that except on one I just did because the contest hasn’t been decided yet that I sent to you guys. Boy, if I do this on all of them, it’s going to be a lot of contests. But at least of some of mine were pretty specific to the one contest so it may be worthwhile to do that. Shoot, I’ve got to go back!

Anyway, I also came back to tell you, Dan, that this is going to save me a BUNCH of time and I REALLY appreciate that, too!

Thanks for clarifying! Is it possible to leave domain reporting open until a contest has closed?

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Checking domain availability as you enter a name takes a much longer time than before. Anybody else experiencing this?

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Yes, I am experiencing longer wait times to check/enter a domain too.

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I am experiencing the Delay too

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Good improvements. One suggestion/question:
Since we have thousands of entries, would it be possible, when performing availability check, to get a simple list ONLY with the domains that 1) have been registered and 2) have been submitted during the last 30 days? In other words, to get a list with domains eligible to be reported. Thanks.

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Thank you, SH, for adding the “Last 30 days” search tool to the Domain checker!!!

thanks for the 30 days checkbox!

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I just realized that I can also sort by available/not available to shorten it to just the registered ones! This is so awesome!

There’s just so many ways that this is helpful @Dan. It has not only helped me to report some I didn’t know about but it has also helped me to see what you have always said…which is that they are often not registered by CHs. I have so much more peace of mind. Also, I think this is a deterrent to those who might register. I’ve already noticed I have less of them. Thank you so much for doing this.

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